GCI Film has announced that its animated family feature, Ozi: Voice of the Forest, will be debuting its first scenes at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15 in France, with a panel conversation featuring executive producer Rodrigo Blaas, director Tim Harper and the award-winning animation team from Mikros Animation.
The independently financed feature follows the journey of a teenage orangutan named Ozi and her friends, who sets out on a voyage of discovery across the rainforest, in a quest to find her parents in a land that has fallen victim to deforestation.
Supported by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions and multi-Academy-Award-winning producer Mike Medavoy, the feature aims to raise awareness around the issues our planet’s rainforests face due to growing levels of deforestation, and how this affects the ecosystems within.
Voices of Ozi: Voice of the Forest include Amandla Stenberg as Ozi, Laura Dern, RuPaul, Donald Sutherland and Djimon Hounsou, under the direction of renowned animated content director Tim Harper and creators Keith Chapman (PAW Patrol, Bob the Builder) and Rodrigo Blaas (Pixar’s WALL-E, Finding Nemo). The original screenplay was written by Emmy Award winner Ricky Roxburgh (Tangled, Spy Kids).
With creative development from concept-to-delivery from the Mikros Animation team, the fully CGI film features the animation work of over 300 animation experts globally, driven by both their passion for storytelling, and communicating the underlying social cause. Sean Mullen, Head of Story and Character Animation at Mikros, comments, “Through this film’s animation style, we’ve aimed to build something that feels both fun and whimsical, with the ultimate goal to marry art and entertainment with messages around global deforestation.”
Adam Stanhope, Director of CGI Film, adds, “Mikros Animation are a key part of the global team we have assembled to complete this project, and it’s a testament to the strength of our story that we’ve been able to attract such world class talent and production partners.”
The film’s producers and Mikros Animation team will be speaking about Ozi: Voice of the Forest and debuting the first full-length scenes exclusively at the Annecy Festival, on June 15, 4 – 5:15 p.m. local time. More details can be found here.
You can watch a quick sneak-peek of Ozi on YouTube Shorts here
